In the end, Syracuse basketball's NCAA penalties weren't that harsh

Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim talks to a referee during a game against St. Bonaventure on Nov. 17, 2015, at Carrier Dome.

(Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com)

Syracuse, N.Y. — It was back in March, following eight years of digging, that the NCAA put down its shovels and announced in its 94-page indictment that those who ran the Orange were scoundrels or screw-ups … or both.

"Over the course of a decade," that Indianapolis-based body announced, "Syracuse University did not control and monitor its athletics program, and the head basketball coach failed to monitor his program."

With that, the NCAA levied its penalties that included a forfeiture of a dozen men's basketball scholarships over a four-year stretch, a financial hit of nearly $2.7 million, men's basketball on-the-road recruiting restrictions that would last until the spring of 2017, the removal of what would be amended to 101 men's basketball victories from the history books, and a nine-game suspension of men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim.

SU, whose membership in the NCAA seemed to indicate that the school would abide by its rules (and then didn't), responded in the American way. It would appeal.

And it did.

And this afternoon, the university learned that it had sort of won and sort of lost and sort of drawn. Four of those 12 clipped scholarships (or one in each of the next four years) and $1.23 million would be returned … the 101 defeats and recruiting cutbacks would be upheld … Boeheim's ban would be further mulled.

Already there is more than a bit of bile on display throughout orange-hued Central New York where the sins (and lesser punishments) of other programs are being considered. This is the right of the devoted fan, of course, and was as predictable as Thursday's bowl of stuffing at Grandma's dinner table.

But SU did engage in academic misconduct in the matter, specifically, of Fab Melo … and it did suit up athletes who'd received improper (if piddling) benefits from that YMCA … and it did fail to abide by its own drug policy. And it did feel so badly about all of this that it pulled out of last season's ACC, NCAA and NIT tournaments.

So nobody — not Boeheim or his program's loyalists — would disagree that some kind of penance would be appropriate. Instead, the debate centered on the amount of that penance.

And now, even as we await word on that sanctioning of Boeheim — which, if upheld, would all but remove him from the Syracuse basketball world for the month of January — that weight has been determined.

And, well, beyond the stigma, how bad is it?

Boeheim, a guy who rarely uses more than eight or nine players in meaningful games, will have 11 scholarship athletes on his roster going forward.

SU can find that $1.3 million somewhere in its cushions.

Everybody knows who won those 101 games.

The lure of the ACC, the aura of the Carrier Dome, the Orange's never-ending TV appearances and the legacy of the Hall-of-Fame coach will stanch any of the off-campus recruiting bleeding.

Mike Hopkins, if summoned from the bullpen, will be ready to take the ball from his boss. He is, after all, Syracuse's coach-in-waiting, isn't he?

Make no mistake that a price has been paid. And it's more than merely one of embarrassment. But the perception of that tariff seems harsher than its reality.

And there is this, too: Though SU's transgressions date back to that time before the Orange won the 2003 national championship, that title belt happily, conveniently, remains snug around the Syracuse waist.